It is an environmental benefit to transport vehicles by train. In order to facilitate such transport laterally displaceable railway wagons have been developed. A laterally displaceable railway wagon is a railway wagon that can be laterally displaced by swinging out one end thereof, or more particularly one end of a load carrier that is a part of the whole wagon, such that the vehicle can be driven on board the wagon. Alternatively, the wagon, or a load carrier thereof, is moved in parallel, or it is rotated about a centre seat. Then the wagon is returned to its original position and the train may depart.
In order to facilitate the displacement of the wagon, and keep the balance thereof, it is provided with some kind of support device. In EP1805072 a support device arranged at both ends of the load carrier of the railway wagon is disclosed. The support device comprises a lever which is rotatably attached to a fixed seat of the load carrier at one end of the lever, and rotatably attached to an operating device at the other end. An abutment unit comprising a ski and a wheel is rotatably connected with the lever and is lowered into contact with the ground when the operating device is operated for lowering the lever. The prior art support device mostly works well, however it has a tendency to dig itself into the ground when the ground is soft.